There’s so much drama, fear, stigma, lack of expression, judgement and restricted communication in our world.
Being sucked into that vortex and living your life from that place comes with a huge cost. It can override your senses, suppress your true nature and hide your gifts and talents.
It can also shut down your ability to let your emotions flow and understand what they mean. Your emotions help you concentrate your time and energy in ways that feel good to you, enhance your own life experience and allow you to be a force for good. Suppressing them can make you judge yourself harshly and subdue important aspects of who you are.
This can create numbness and an inability to make important life decisions, leaving you full of regret when you reach the end of your time here on our magnificent, complicated planet.
I was raised with the motto, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all”. While this is great at supporting peace and calm in a household of eight, it wasn’t great for acknowledging and accessing my own emotions and the power they hold. It severely limited my ability to understand others’ perspectives and how to communicate openly and clearly in times of irritation, anger or hurt. And it held me back from finding my own voice and getting to know myself.
My teenage years were particularly challenging as I tried to figure out who I was and how to find my way in the world. I had no idea how to understand and process my own emotions and how to talk openly with others. I made poor choices and lacked connection to the type of intuition and inner knowing that would have allowed me to take advantage of wider opportunities. It robbed me of creating healthy relationships, especially with myself; and it went on like that for years.
I’m not under any delusions that choosing a different path is easy. I started to explore all aspects of my health and my life in my early 20’s, and haven’t stopped since. Right now I’m facing the difficulty of more deeply navigating my “inner world”, as in my emotions and my intuition. I’ve come to realize this is a huge pain point for me as I had no idea how to up-level this area of my life.
However, I’m uncovering some simple solutions. For example, I often try to do too many tasks simultaneously in a short period of time, causing myself unnecessary stress and ridiculous self judgement (which now seems SO silly after bringing awareness to this destructive habit).
I’m having conversations with myself, literally asking myself what I’m feeling (often while I am driving or walking), what my concerns and fears are, and where they come from. I stick with it until I understand where I’m at and how I want to proceed.
I’m summoning my courage to speak up, personally and professionally, knowing that our cultural and societal ideas of health and expression are way too limited and cause distress, heartache, regret, illness and disease. Our beliefs, thoughts, emotions and choices all emit chemicals in our bodies that change how our bodies operate, for better or worse.
You can eat all the right foods, move your body in the right ways, live in a healthy home, etc., and still be sabotaging your health. If you’re suppressing your emotions, operating from beliefs that don’t serve you, making choices based on familial and societal teachings that you didn’t consciously choose, or generally forgetting that you are in charge of all of those things, then it’s time to consider how this may be affecting you.
Making mistakes, showing up fully as our less than perfect and always expanding selves, and caring deeply, are all part of a beautiful, well-lived life, no matter how messy it may look or feel.
I know I will not always express myself fully or clearly and that I will be judged for how I show up and what I say. In the past, that has made me hold my tongue and hide. I’m ready to be done with that, but putting that into action is scary and uncomfortable.
I’m sure the old patterns will creep up and threaten to pull me down. But I’m determined to stay mindful and forge ahead. I want to play my part in expanding our conversations about what true health means, and that exploring and expressing our beliefs and emotions are integral parts of all that we do.
Far too few of us are actively working towards realizing the incredible depths of our potential. That’s what I find to be the great tragedy of where most people operate from. And we are hijacked each and every day with constant assaults to our focus and intentions.
Today I invite you to allow yourself to reach the places inside yourself you may have lost touch with. You must see all that you are and muck through the uncomfortable stuff in order to experience the most joy and fulfillment in life.
And I want you to be able to live an extraordinary life!